How to cover nail holes effectively and inexpensively?

Question

I am moving out of rental, and there are some nail holes in the wall. I don't want to use spackle, because it would require me to repaint the walls, and I don't want that.

What is an alternate solution to hide the holes?

Answer 1

Toothpaste

Advantages:

• You probably already have it.
• A nail hole filled with toothpaste looks less obvious than a nail hole from a distance
• Very life-hacky, in that special "I remember being a poor student" way

Disadvantages:

• A nail hole filled with toothpaste looks pretty obvious up-close. Especially if you're using neon green toothpaste with a red stripe through the middle.
• Toothpaste isn't actually much cheaper than spackle

Spackle

Advantages

• You can actually buy tubes of spackle that are shaped nicely for filling nail holes
• It can be painted to match the rest of the wall
• If your landlord catches you filling the holes, you can claim to actually be fixing them rather than using some dirty college-student trick to avoid losing your deposit.

Disadvantages

• It's not very life-hacky. In fact, it's not very hacky at all. It's sorta what spackle is meant for.

Chewed-up paper

Advantages:

• Really cheap. You probably already have paper and saliva that you weren't going to use for anything anyway.
• Lets you pretend to be a paper wasp. Admit it, you always wanted to be a wasp.
• Super life-hacky.

Disadvantages:

• Not going to fool anyone who actually looks at the wall.
• You're gonna get spit all over your fingers.
• If your landlord catches you, you can kiss your deposit goodbye.

Answer 2

If your goal is to fill in the hole with a color that matches the paint, without having to actually use any paint. then your best solution is probably going to be either using a bar of soap, or wax from a candle.

As long as you can get the color of the soap or wax to match the color of the wall, no one should be able to tell that it's there unless they happen to touch it.

What you would do is take the bar of soap or wax that matches the color of the wall, and for the soap you can just rub the it around the nail hole to fill it with the shavings, or like with the wax just take a knife and cut a piece to press into the hole.

Both the soap shavings and wax should be malleable enough to shape if you have a textured wall. Allowing you to hide it even more.

If you're having trouble finding soap that matches the right color, you can look for a place that sells homemade or organic soap. They will usually create different colored soaps than the typical white or blue soaps in convenience stores. If you're feeling really crafty, you can melt soap and mix in colors yourself. If you're really adamant about using this method, you can create your own soap.

Wax is easier to find. just buy a cheap candle. But typically you're only going to find white candles if you're looking for the cheap/small ones. Luckily, it's really easy to melt wax and add some food coloring to it in order to get the desired color that you want.

Answer 3

Use a squeeze tube of spackle:

A single tube is enough for several holes and (in the US) costs less than $10. Sand excess and paint over it after it is set.

Answer 4

1. Take some putty
2. Stick it in the hole
3. Get rid of all excess, it should look flush.
4. Paint over it.

Answer 5

Don't. As someone with several rentals in the family, every landlord has their own way of dealing with nail holes. Fixing them could cost more than leaving them, especially if landlord has to fix your attempt at fixing. Dear god, just leave it.